Binary liquid explosives are a sexy staple of Hollywood thrillers. It would be tedious to enumerate the movie terrorists who've employed relatively harmless liquids that, when mixed, immediately rain destruction upon an innocent populace, like the seven angels of God's wrath pouring out their bowls full of pestilence and pain. The funny thing about these movies is, we never learn just which two chemicals can be handled safely when separate, yet instantly blow us all to kingdom come when combined. Nevertheless, we maintain a great eagerness to believe in these substances, chiefly because action movies wouldn't be as much fun if we didn't.Now we have news of the recent, supposedly real-world, terrorist plot to destroy commercial airplanes by smuggling onboard the benign precursors to a deadly explosive, and mixing up a batch of liquid death in the lavatories. ... http://www.theregister.co.uk

In the most sweeping reform of Japan's legal system since World War II, the doors are opening wide for a flood of new lawyers, prosecutors and judges to handle criminal and civil cases in an increasingly litigious society. Experts say the reforms are long overdue and underscore a big shift in social attitudes that is forcing Japan to change its longstanding policy of keeping the number of lawyers low and the public out of the courts. Japan has roughly 22,000 lawyers one for every 5,790 people, compared with one for every 268 in the U.S. Under the old bar exam, to be scrapped in 2011, fewer than 1,500 people are allowed to pass every year. In the United States, with about twice Japan's population, the number is closer to 75,000. When a Nation has too many Lawyers and they are allowed in Politics or in Government, it has already destroyed itself ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2334864

A farmer has been arrested in China's Shaanxi province accused of the gruesome killing of 10 people at a Taoist temple, state media said. Qiu Xinghua, 47, was held on Saturday when he returned to his home in Fobing. His alleged victims were aged between 12 and 62 and included the abbot of the Tiewadian temple in Ankang, whose organs were found "sliced and fried". The words "He deserves it" were written at the scene in the blood of the victims, the media reports said. Qiu Xinghua is said to have returned to his rented home not knowing police were lying in wait. About 200 officers had taken part in a month-long manhunt, many of them scouring remote forests. The suspect's picture had been released nationwide and a 50,000 yuan ($6,200; £3,300) reward offered for information leading to his capture. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5269028.stm

It looks like a heap of rubbish, feels like flaky pastry and has been linked to aliens. For decades, scientists have puzzled over the complex collection of cogs, wheels and dials seen as the most sophisticated object from antiquity, writes Helena Smith. But 102 years after the discovery of the calcium-encrusted bronze mechanism on the ocean floor, hidden inscriptions show that it is the world's oldest computer, used to map the motions of the sun, moon and planets.'We're very close to unlocking the secrets,' says Xenophon Moussas,an astrophysicist with a Anglo-Greek team researching the device. 'It's like a puzzle concerning astronomical and mathematical knowledge.'Known as the Antikythera mechanism and made before the birth of Christ, the instrument was found by sponge divers amid the wreckage of a cargo ship that sunk off the tiny island of Antikythera in 80BC. To date, no other appears to have survived....http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1854232,00.html

More than 300 illegal immigrants have arrived in Spain's Canary Islands from the north-west coast of Africa. Their arrival follows that of 500 migrants who reached land on Friday. The latest immigrants, who travelled in several small boats, were immediately given medical treatment for the effects of hypothermia and dehydration. The regional government of the Canary Islands has urged the authorities in Madrid to act urgently over what it calls an immigration avalanche. It says it can no longer cope with the soaring numbers of migrants arriving from Africa. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero interrupted his holiday in the Canaries to visit two overcrowded reception centres. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5268018.stm

The main opposition candidate in Venezuela, Manuel Rosales, has registered his candidacy for December's presidential election. He led thousands of his supporters on a march through Caracas to the headquarters of the electoral council to formalise his candidacy. Mr Rosales is the governor of the oil-rich Zulia state in west Venezuela. The Venezuelan opposition has proclaimed him its sole candidate to stand against President Hugo Chavez. For many in Venezuela, Mr Rosales represents their only realistic hope of seeing President Hugo Chavez removed from office anytime soon. Addressing thousands of his supporters outside the National Electoral Council in Caracas, the 54-year-old state governor dared them to imagine another kind of Venezuela. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5267952.stm